Binance Research, in collaboration with Binance VIP & Institutional, has recently unveiled the results of their Institutional Crypto Outlook Survey. The study reveals a strong positive sentiment towards cryptocurrencies among institutional investors, with 63.5% expressing optimism for the next year and a striking 88% displaying a positive outlook for the next decade.
The survey, which ran from March 31 to May 15, 2023, gathered responses from 208 Binance VIP and Institutional users. It aimed to explore the demographics, attitudes, preferences, and motivations of these investors towards cryptocurrency investments.
Key findings from the survey indicate that despite market fluctuations over the past year, 47.1% of investors have maintained their crypto allocation, while 35.6% have increased their allocation. Only a minority, 17.3%, have decreased their crypto allocation. Looking forward, the majority of respondents expect to either increase (50.0%) or maintain (45.7%) their allocation over the next 12 months.
The study also highlights that institutional investors believe that the adoption of cryptocurrencies will be driven more by real-world use cases (26.9%) and improvements in regulatory clarity (25.3%) rather than higher prices (3.4%). This suggests that institutional participation in the crypto market is taking on a longer-time horizon, less reactive to short-term market cycles.
Interestingly, the survey reveals a more positive perception of Bitcoin compared to the broader crypto sector. While perceptions of Bitcoin and crypto remained largely unchanged over the past year (47.8% and 44.7% respectively), a larger proportion of respondents have turned more positive on Bitcoin (47.3% vs. 33.2%).
When it comes to investment motivation, 42.8% of investors cited the potential for large investment returns as the most compelling reason for investing in cryptocurrencies. This was followed by 37.5% of investors who see gaining long-term exposure to an emerging technology as the primary motivation.
Centralized Exchanges remain the most popular platform for institutional trading (90.5%) and custody activities (58.2%). The top three criteria for selecting a trading platform were liquidity (28.0%), security (26.0%), and reputation (22.5%).
Catherine Chen, Head of Binance VIP and Institutional, commented on the findings, “Institutions typically take a long-term horizon when they enter a new market, and our survey indicates that is likewise for crypto assets. These findings match the healthy rate of institutional account growth on Binance, which has increased 89% since the height of the bull market in Q4 2021.”
The results of this survey underscore the growing institutional interest and confidence in the long-term potential of cryptocurrencies.